• Children of Winter• || NamMin

1.2 Angry Horanghi

Namjoon is a creature of routine. In general, it bothers him to have to get out of it. Wake up, stretch, get dressed, comb his hair from time to time, go hunting for food and come home. Day in and day out go for a walk in the woods, receive sporadic visits from Bom, spend two hours at the campfire outside the house, have dinner and go back to sleep.

He rarely goes to town, usually to buy cloth to make clothes or to find artwork to decorate his little house in the mountains.

Today is a day when he will not be able to follow the routine. He knew it since he heard too much noise while trying to hunt a deer. Mon does his own hunting elsewhere and returns at night to show his results.

Namjoon decides to return home to try to calculate how close the invaders are. No need, as soon as he was home, fifteen people came out of the trees. They all wear a scarf attached to their hips. Red in color and a fox print.

Namjoon growls, showing his fangs and twitching body, warning that he will attack if they come any closer. They all have swords and only one of them has a rifle already loaded with charcoal.

"Get out of my territory." orders Namjoon.

"Kim Nam-Joon, right? The tiger beastman of the mon-"

"I said get out of my territory." He repeats, now advancing toward the nobleman. Easily distinguishable by wearing a gat, covering the sangtu.

All are Alpha. Except for the one carrying the rifle, he is a Beta.

"We wish to negotiate with you, sir-"

"Please wait!"

Namjoon stands still in his place, analyzing with his eyes the person standing in his way: an Omega. It is quite large for the usual and among its oddities is that it is a beastman. In front of Namjoon is Jeon Jung-Kook, a wolf beastman.

His clothes give away that he has a high position within the nobility. Even his scent is of incense.

"Wait, please. We just want to talk. I promise we'll leave after that."

Namjoon grunts under his breath. He doesn't like attacking beastman, much less Omegas. He lets his guard down a little, but like the soldiers, he doesn't stop being defensive .

. . .

"I introduce myself. I'm Baek Ryuy "Namjoon raises an eyebrow, that name is dissonant. "As I guess you'd assume, I come from a mixed race family. While my mother was Japanese, my father was Korean" he clarifies politely and Namjoon gives a snort. Something about him strikes him as suspicious. Is he a beastman too? There's nothing about him that makes him stand out. "We came to your 'territory' for the purpose of hiring you," he says.

"I'm not a mercenary." says Namjoon.

"We know that."

"Then you have no business on my mountain."

"On the contrary, you have no business on our mountain. It belongs to Hwanwon's empire," Ryuya corrects. "Just having settled in doesn't tell you that you own this space."

"Neither does having a damn palace full of polished stones and wearing more than eight layers of cloth" Namjoon argues showing fangs and grumpiness growing in intensity. Discomfort grows from the scent he gives off. Its menacing presence that makes them want to run away from there. Except Ryuya, who is able to control his instincts enough. "Get the hell out of here before I kill you."

"It can be arranged simple, Mr. Kim" Ryuya warns calmly. "We need your hunter service. You have hunted even your own kind Or am I wrong?" Namjoon is silent, he is a chako in an unofficial way. "As you may know, the conflict between the council has turned into a two-sided problem. We, Bulgeun Yeou and they, as usual, retreating as the Mugunghwa clan. It's been going on for a long time, has generated consistent losses and-"